Loom heddle frame



Nov. 5, 1968 M. GRAF 3,409,052

LOOM HEDDLE FRAME Filed March 1, 1967 5 Sheets-Sheet l Nov. 5, 1968 M. GRAF 3,409,052

LOOM HEDDLE FRAME Filed March 1, 1967 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Fig. 5

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United States Patent 3,409,052 LOOM HEDDLE FRAME Martin Graf, Horgen, Zurich, Switzerland, assignor t0 Grob & Co. Aktiengesellschaft, Zurich, Switzerland Filed Mar. 1, 1967, Ser. No. 619,808 Claims priority, application Switzerland, Mar. 2, 1966, 2,969/ 66 4 Claims. (Cl. 139-88) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A suspension hook 14 of a heddle frame for a loom is slidable vertically in a bracket 8 attached to the lateral support 2 of the frame. The hook is normally held in a raised position by a spring 15, and a rib 17 engaging in a keyway 12a prevents the hook from rotating, so that the vertical position of the hook can be adjusted simply by turning the nut 19. When the hook is pressed down so that its rib 17 disengages the keyway 12a the hook can be turned about its longitudinal axis (or tilted through a cutout 25) to expose the head 7 of a fastening screw 6.

This invention relates to heddle frames for loom harnesses of the type having suspension devices attached to the lateral supports of the frame. These suspension devices enable the frame to be connected to the shedding mechanism. Various kinds of suspension devices are known which are usually attached to the outside edges of the lateral supports in the region of the attachment of the lateral supports to the upper stave of the heddle frame. The suspension devices are usually fastened to the lateral supports by means of screws, rivets or the like.

Sometimes, parts of the suspension device are formed by the lateral supports themselves when the latter are made of flat metal strips. Since the suspension devices have to be capable of transmitting considerable pulling forces applied jerkily in rapid succession to the heddle frame, such devices are not normally made detachable, or can only be detached with difiiculty.

In known heddle frames, the lateral supports are secured to the upper stave, for example by mortising, there being one or more screws for engagement with the end of the stave. In order that the stave may be pulled firmly against the lateral support, these fastening screws extend through the support and pass into the stave longitudinally of the stave, the heads of these screws being accessible only from the outside of the support. Now if parts of the suspension device are in the region of these fastening screws which serve to hold the upper stave or as a means of connecting the heddle key of an automatic warp threading machine at half the height of the lateral support, the preparation of the loom harness is considerably increased. This is especially the case when one part of the suspension device is made vertically adjustable relatively to the lateral support so that the level of the loom harness can be adjusted relatively to its suspension in a simple manner. Either a hole exposing the screw-head must be provided in the suspensiondevice and to be made longer according to the adjustment space or the adjustable part of the suspension device must be adjusted each time for height or removed in such a way that the parts to be actuated become accessible. This causes extra expenditure of time and increases the expense of preparing loom harness. If parts of the suspension device are to be removed they may be lost. Besides, there is no guarantee that, for example, the shank hooks of the suspension devices of each loom harness will be equally adjusted.

The primary object of this invention is to provide a heddle frame in which parts, such as screw heads, in the 3,409,052 Patented Nov. 5, 1968 region of a suspension device can be made accessible without removing the suspension device wholly or in part, and in which this accessibility can be achieved without loosening adjustable parts.

Another object of the invention is to provide a heddle frame for a loom with a suspension hook mounted with its shank parallel with a lateral support of the frame with freedom for two independent degrees of movement, one permitting fine adjustment of the longitudinal position of the hook but not rotation of the hook about the longitudinal axis of its shank and the other permitting longitudinal sliding of the hook against a spring mounted on said book.

The permitted longitudinal sliding movement enables the hook to be moved out of the way of the fastening screws or any other parts which would otherwise be obscured by the hook, and provision may be made for holding the hook in a retracted position, for example, by rotating it or tilting it to one side.

Two constructions in accordance with the invention will now be particularly described, by way of examples only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a front elevation of the top right hand corner of a heddle frame with a suspension hook in the operative position;

FIG. 2 is an end view of the parts shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a view in the same direction as FIG. 2 but showing the hook retracted and secured;

FIG. 4 is a section to a larger scale on the line IVIV in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a view in the same direction as FIG. 2, but showing an alternative form of hook in its retracted position, and

FIG. 6 is a plan view to a larger scale of a bracket shown in FIG. 5.

In the arrangement shown in FIGS. 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the drawings, the right hand end of the upper horizontal stave is indicated at 1, and the upper part of the vertical right hand side support is indicated at 2. Together with a lower horizontal stave and a vertical left hand side support (which for the sake of simplicity are not shown) they form a rectangular heddle frame. This frame is equipped with an upper heddle carrying rod 3 and a lower heddle carrying rod (not shown) onto which vertically disposed heddles 4 are threaded. The upper stave 1 is detachably connected by means of a fastening screw 6 with the side support 2. For this purpose, a metal insert 5 is fitted in the end of the stave 1 and this insert is screwed internally to receive the screw 6. The head 7 of the fastening screw is sunk in the side support 2.

On the outside of the side support 2, which may for example be manufactured of compressed hardwood, a suspension device is fitted to provide a connection to the shed forming mechanism of the loom (which is not shown). The suspension device includes a vertical bracket 8 fixed by rivets 9 to the side support 2. The bracket 8 has upper and lower horiozntal projections 10 and 11 spaced vertically from each other, and formed respectively with aligned holes 12 and 13 through which passes the vertically disposed shank of a hook 14. If the side supports 2 are manufactured out of fiat metal strips, these can be bent edgewise in known manner to wholly or partially replace the bracket 8.

The hook 14 is bent at its upper end to form a V shaped hook end 16 and alongside the upper portion of its shank, it is formed with a longitudinal rib 17. The hole 12 in the projection 10 at the top of the bracket 8, is shaped like a keyhole (see FIG. 4) there being a keyway 12a to slidably receive the longitudinal rib 17, which corresponds to the ward of the key. A compression spring 15 surrounds the shank of the hook below the H517 and the upper endb'f this spring engages the lower end 17b of the rib, while the lower end of the spring engages the top side of the horiozntal lower projection 11. The lower end of the shank of the hook, extends freely through the hole 13 in the projection 11, and this end is screw threaded at 18 to receive a nut 19 which is preferably of a self locking type.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the hook 14 is in its basic operative position. lin this position, the nut 19 engages the underside of the projection '11 and the compression spring 15 holds the hook 14 in a raised position. One of the advantages of the invention is that no counter nut is re- 'quired on the opposite side of the projection 11 to the nut 19, and consequently the self locking nut 19 can be adjusted without difficulty because the rib 17 prevents the hook from rotating about its longitudinal axis, and if any fine adjustment of the position of the suspension hook is required, it is only necessary to turn the nut 19. This provides the first degree, of movement permitted to the hook by the invention.

In FIG. 3, the hook 14 is shown in the retracted position, in which the head 7 of the screw 6 is uncovered so as to be easily accessible. For moving the hook into its retracted position, it is sufiicient simply to overcome the pressure of the coil spring 15, by pushing the book 14 downwards so far, that the upper end 17a of its longitudinal rib becomes disengaged from the keyway 12a, and the whole of the rib 17 is then disposed below the upper horizontal bracket projection 10. In this position, the hook can be turned about its longitudinal axis, until the upper end 1711 of the rib is below a solid part of the projection and in this position, the spring 15 holds the upper end of the rib 17 pressed against the lower face of the projection 10, and the hook cannot spring back to its operative position. 1

FIG. 4 shows in dotted lines, the position of the upper end 17a of the rib, when the hook 14 has been turned in its retracted position. In order to release the hook from its retracted position and allow it to reurn to its operative position, it is necessary first to depress the hook slightly to disengage the end 17a from the projection 10 and then to turn the hook about its longitudinal axis, to bring the rib 17 into line with the keyhole 12a. The book will then spring back to its original operative position, and the vertical setting will be maintained, assuming that the nut 19 was not moved axially along the threaded portion of the shank of the hook.

Referring now to the arrangements shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, it is to be understood that like reference numerals refer to parts similar to those shown in FIGS. 1 to 4. However, in the arrangement shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, it is possible for the suspension hook 14 to be tilted from its vertical position when-retracted, to uncover the head 7 of the fastening screw 6. For this purpose, the shank of the hook 14 has a portion 20 of reduced diameter immediately above the upper end 17a of the rib 17, the length of this reduced portion 20 corresponding at least to the thickness of the upper horizontal projection 21 of the bracket 8.

The lower projection 22 of the bracket 8 has a hole 23 through which the shank of the hook passes, but in this construction, the hole 23 tapers so that its upper end is of larger diameter than its lower end. The hole 24 in the upper projection 21 of the bracket 8, in addition to the keyway 12a is connected with a cut-out 25 at one side of the hole 24. The width of this cut-out is slightly greater than the diameter of the reduced portion 20 of the shank 14, although it is preferably smaller than the diameter of the plane portion of the shank. Therefore, it is possible to swing the upper end of the hook 14 sideways as shown in FIG. 5, when the reduced portion 20 is brought into line with the cut-out 25 in the projection 21.

In the normal operative position, the hook 14 is he] in its upper position by the compression spring 15 and adjustment is obtained by turning the nut 19 as in the pre- 4 vious example. When it is desiredto uncover the head 7 o f the screw 6, the hook 14 is depressed against the action of its compression spring, until the reduced portion 20 is in line with the cut-out 25, and then the hook 14 is tilted sideways to disengage it from the upper projection 21. When pressure is released from the hook 14, the latter again moves upwardly but this time in the tilted position, and it cannot get back into the hole 24 until it is again depressed to bring the reduced portion 20 into line with the cut-out -25. The tilting movement of the hook is permitted by the tapering of the hole 23.

The advantage of the suspension devices described can be summarised as follows. The shank hook can be adjusted vertically by turning of a single nut and in the operative position, the hook is resiliently mounted on the bracket. Also in the operative position, the suspension hook is secured against rotation about its longitudinal axis, without interferring with the lateral support itself.

Its hook thereby remainsfreely accessible. When it is required to gain access to the fastening screw 7 a single depression and turning movoment of the hand is all that is required to retract and lock the hook in its retracted position.

This arrangement of the suspension hook provides a series of advantages in use. Loom heddle frames can be made with easily interchangeable lateral supports, and can be transported as individual parts rather than as assembled frames. This produces economy in packing and freight charges and at the same time avoids the necessity for unscrewing and re-screwing the suspension devices on assembly by the customer. The economy in working time is considerable, because as a rule, one suspension device is required for eachlateral support.

In some arrangements for automatic drawing-in of the warp threads into the heddle eyes, and subsequent threading of the heddles onto the heddle carrying rods of the heddle frames, one lateral support of each frame has to -be removed to permit connection of the heddle frame with the automatic drawing-in machine. This process has to be carried out on each heddle frame of the loom harness that has to be threaded after the dismantling of the warp. As a rule, each loom harness is withdrawn for overhaul several times a year and consequently the economies in time and labor obtainable with the invention are significant. It will also be appreciated that the adjustable suspension means provided by the invention is simple to manufacture and that there is only a very small additional expense in comparison with traditional frames.

What I claim is:

1. The combination of a heddle frame having a vertical side support with a suspension device comprising a bracket having spaced upper and lower horizontal projections attached to said side support, and a hook member comprising a straight shank and a hook at the upper end of said shank, said shank extending freely lengthwise movable through aligned holes in said two horizontal projections and having a threaded lower end, a nut on said lower end adapted to engage the lower horizontal projection when said hook member is in its extended operative position, a helical spring engaging with its upper end a projection on said shank and with its lower end engaging the upper face of said lower projection for urging said hook member in its upper operative position in which said projection on said shank extends through a key slot formed in said upper horizontal projection, thereby preventing a rotation of said hook member, said projection on said shank upon lengthwise retraction of said hook member to an inoperative position being disengaged from said key slot and permitting a rotation of said hook member and an engagement of said projection on said shank with the lower face of said upper horizontal projection, thereby locking said hook member in its retracted inoperative position.

2. In a combination according to claim 1, in which said projection on said shank of said hook member comprises a lengthwise extending rib extending along the upper portion of said shank such a distance as to remain in engagement with said key slot in said upper horizontal projection when the shank is in its extended operative position and the nut at the threaded lower end of the shank engages the lower face of said lower horizontal projection.

3. In a combination according to claim 1, including a reduced cross-sectional portion on the upper portion of said shank, and a lateral cut-out in said upper horizontal projection of said bracket, said cut-out being in communication with said key slot in said upper horizontal projection and permitting a sidewise tilting movement of said hook member to release it from said horizontal projection when upon lengthwise displacement of said hook 4. In a combination according to claim 1, in which said shank of said hook member extends lengthwise through said helical spring.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,601,872 7/1952 Kaufmann 139-88 2,982,313 5/1961 Kaufmann 13988 3,106,942 10/1963 Ray 139-88 3,260,281 7/1966 Kaufmann 13988 ROBERT R. MACKEY, Primary Examiner.

member said reduced cross-sectional portion of said shank 15 JAMES KEE Assistant Examine"- has been brought into alignment with said cut-out. 

